Design Links: A Chain of Creative Inspiration, Part 6

Editor’s Note: This is part six in Emily Potts’ inspirational series, Design Links. Every other week, will feature three artists whose work offers fresh, fun and stimulating creative inspiration. Each artist picks the next link—someone who personally inspires him/her. Check out the fifth part in the series, featuring Elena Kalorkoti, Wai Wai Pang, and Amanda Baeza here.

His choices of colors, shapes, textures and plasticity is a living reminder that we can and should embrace the unexpected in our work. His work is undoubtedly mesmerizing.

I love this piece. This zine is, I think, one of the best examples of how Harnan’s work transcends the illustration field, filling the gap between drawing and design, and expanding it with a great sense of graphic composition.

It’s impossible to choose just one work that represents Chris’s playfulness and genius, but I would say that this one comes very close. This piece has been one of my favorites for a long time, and I always return to it when my brain needs a fresh punch of colors and shapes.

Elliot seems to have a pretty tireless energy for creating interesting, different compositions of pattern and color. You can look at his site for a very long time, and go to his backlog of experiments, doodles, and piecing-together-of-things. I feel like we might share some aesthetic favors, and I have to stop myself from stealing sometimes.

Particular attention to the meshed together legs of the running dogs, and the pattern taking up half a page, these sketchbook pages are a good example of his willingness to abstract.

This is representative of a lot of what I appreciate about Elliot’s work: busy composition of simple shapes, basic colors, and abstracted textures. The quality of the image is owed to the elements strength in composition, and the way in which they interact, rather than traditional drawing skill.

I’m inspired by his drawings. He seems to follow no rules, allowing the drawing technique, perspective, and characters to evolve around the content whilst being consistent in delivering beautiful and humorous imagery.

I love this drawing. It smacks you in the teeth and yet you will come back for more.

I believe this is one of an ongoing set of Illustrations that John does for Quo Vadis, a restaurant in Soho, N.Y. Every illustration in this set is brilliant, with a great idea at the root. John has a directness and inventiveness to his drawings like no one else.

Tune in two weeks from now to see who inspired John Broadley!

Give your design ideas a home and raise awareness for endangered animals at the same time with the Extinct Collection Notebooks from Absoloot and the Jane Goodall Institute. Each notebook cover features a different endangered animal, as well as species information and conservation status on the inside cover. Made with environmentally friendly paper, you can contribute to a great cause while also giving yourself a creative space to sketch wireframes, brainstorm, or jot down notes.